India’s equity markets staged a sharp rebound on Thursday after opening with significant losses. The weekly expiry day started on a weak note, with the benchmark indices -- BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty -- witnessing a steep gap-down opening. The downturn was driven by geopolitical tensions after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order levying an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, raising the total US tariff on India to 50%.
The Sensex, which fell more than 700 points to hit an intraday low of 79,824.61, closed the session at 80,623.26, while the Nifty rebounded from a fall of 220.80 points to settle above the 24,500 level. The broader midcap index edged up by 0.3%, while the smallcap index closed on a muted note.
The sharp improvement in investors’ sentiment came amid hopes of a potential meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and further trade negotiations between India and the US.
"Domestic equities recovered sharply from the intraday lows amid a volatile weekly expiry day. Although the earlier trade was weighed down by broad-based selling following steep US tariff hikes on India, sentiment improved toward the close as reports of potential peace talks involving Trump, Putin, and Zelensky which raised hopes of a softer US stance on trade,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited.
“This renewed optimism triggered a strong rebound in the auto, pharma, metals, and energy sectors and aided the market in recalling its trajectory and concluding in the green,” added Nair.
All sectoral indices recovered from the day’s low, with IT, media, and pharma pockets leading the recovery, posting gains in the range of 0.5–1%. Top Nifty gainers on Thursday were Hero MotoCorp, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Eternal, JSW Steel, while major laggards were Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Trent, Tata Motors and Grasim Industries.
Pranay Aggarwal, Director and CEO of Stoxkart, said that Trump’s announcement of an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods may trigger short-term market volatility, especially in export-oriented sectors like engineering goods, textiles, and jewellery. “Investors should avoid heavily US-dependent stocks and shift focus to domestically driven sectors such as banks, FMCG, infra, and utilities. Investors should invest in quality stocks,” he added.